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Tests taken by foreign doctors who want to work in the NHS should be made harder to pass to bring them in line with UK standards, a study has said. Research by University College London found a "performance gap" between international and UK medical graduates. It said pass marks for entry exams sat by international doctors should therefore be set "considerably higher". But the British International Doctors Association disputed the findings and called for a standardised test for all. The research, commissioned by the General Medical Council (GMC), said 1,300 foreign doctors a year passed the competency exams, which assess...

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, blamed the European Union for declaring a new Cold War on Russia that would hurt all concerned, Russian media reported on Saturday as she paid an official visit to Moscow. Europe-Russia relations are at their lowest ebb in decades after President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea prompted the EU to impose sanctions on dozens of prominent Russian officials and lawmakers. However Le Pen, along with other Eurosceptic leaders of the far left and nationalist right, believe the original fault lies with Brussels for offering closer ties with Ukraine, a move Russia...

Schools in Birmingham are illegally segregating pupils, discriminating against non-Muslim students and restricting the GCSE syllabus to “comply with conservative Islamic teaching”, an official report leaked to The Telegraph discloses. Department for Education inspectors said that girls in a school at the centre of the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot were forced to sit at the back of the class, some Christian pupils were left to “teach themselves” and an extremist preacher was invited to speak to children. The report, into three schools in the city, follows weeks of controversy over the alleged plot to “Islamise” secular schools in Birmingham and...

European lawmakers on Thursday eased the way for cartel victims to claim compensation from companies under new rules that also shield price-fixing whistleblowers from being the main target of million-euro lawsuits. The green light from the European Parliament came nine years after the European Commission broached the idea, seeing it as an additional tool, on top of fines, to deter companies from breaking antitrust laws. According to the Commission, only one in four cartels and antitrust infringements faced damages claims in the last seven years. Its 2010 estimate put the cost of unrecovered damages of infringements at over €20 billion...

Austrian Soldier, Eastern Europe, 1915 German troops in Berlin, 1914 Ambulances in Palestine, 1918 French trenches, 1916 Senegalese troops, France, 1917 Dead Italian soldiers, Italy, 1915

IF there is one thing Robert Mugabe dislikes as much as “ruffian” British politicians, it is journalists working for the British media – especially the BBC. Accusing the corporation of one-sided reporting and of being a mouthpiece for the UK government, the controversial Zimbabwean President had refused to grant an interview to any journalist from the broadcaster for14 years.

LONDON – Setting up an intriguing election battle, Britain’s opposition Labor Party announced Friday that it had hired President Obama’s chief campaign advisor to help the party return to power next year over the ruling Conservatives. The decision to recruit David Axelrod means that the 2015 British election will pit two of Obama’s strategists against each other. Working for the Conservatives is Jim Messina, who, like Axelrod, toiled on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and who served as his deputy White House chief of staff during his first term. “David is used to tough fights, and he is going to...

The photographs were captured by two different amateur Nessie hunters scanning different satellites on their iPhone and iPads.

Americans have the Tea Party, which isn’t a party at all, but British establishmentarians are worried about a similar movement that is an actual party. The UK Independence Party or UKIP (pronounced “u-kip”) could have real impact on the European Union elections next month. UKIP is made up mostly, though not exclusively, of former Tory voters who regard Prime Minister David Cameron and his allies as weak-kneed leaders, who neither listen to their base nor fight for the conservative values they profess. UKIP began as a home for British voters skeptical of the value of membership in the European Union...

A Washington woman has come under fire over claims her PTSD caused by online harassment and Twitter trolls is equal to that of military veterans. Harassed: Melody Hensley claims online bullies and Twitter trolls has causedher PTSD and that it is just as bad as that suffered by veterans of combat. Melody Hensley was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 16 months ago following online abuse, which she says is the result of her being an outspoken feminist and atheist. She caused upset to many military veterans and their families and friends when she claimed her PTSD from Twitter trolls...

Pensioners will be given estimates of how long they have left to live to help them manage their savings, a minister has disclosed. Steve Webb said that the Government wants to provide pensioners with a rough life expectancy when they reach retirement to allow them to make better financial decisions. Experts will take into account factors including gender, where a pensioner lives or whether they smoke, the pensions minister said. Life expectancy should be part of “guidance” given to help people decide how much to save. In last month’s Budget, George Osborne announced the scrapping of rules that force most...

The left's tyrannical suppression of opposing views would be less farcical if leftists weren't such pseudo-champions of tolerance and freedom of expression. In our leftist-dominated culture, the permitted categories of speech are becoming ever more restrictive. If, for example, you are a conservative radio talk show host, you must always remain vigilant because the left wants to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine to suppress the opposing viewpoint and re-establish its major-media monopoly. If you own a small catering company and same-sex marriage violates your religious beliefs, the left wants to force you to provide food for same-sex marriage ceremonies. If you...

Are feminists threatened by strong men? Can equality between the sexes include both a strong man and a strong woman,? Or does modern liberalism demand strong women overwhelming weak "metrosexual" men? Man-hating feminists are upset by common sense comments by actress Kirsten Dunst. The “A list” Hollywood star said in an interview in London with Harper’s Bazaar Magazine’s United Kingdom version: “And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armor. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work…" 31-year old Ms. Dunst, who currently stars in “Midnight...

....“The technological problems with airships that have stopped them ruling the skies have been gradually ticked off,” says Mr. Durham, technical director of Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which makes the Airlander.” Advances in materials, avionics and aerodynamic design mean that we have overcome the lion’s share of these obstacles. This craft is part airship, part aircraft and part hovercraft. We have taken the best aspects of each machine and combined them in one hyper-efficient vehicle. Let me tell you, this isn’t the Hindenburg.”... A future design called Airlander 50 will lift 50 tons of cargo, five times more than a...

Britain's Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has conscripted the services of American campaigns professional David Axelrod, otherwise known as the architect behind President Barack Obama's U.S. election victory in 2008. The appointment of Axelrod to the Labour team is the latest in a long line of foreign consultants brought in to try and help Ed Miliband's team on the run up to the UK General Election in May 2015. Axelrod follows in the footsteps of 69-year-old U.S. community organiser Arnie Graf, who embarrassed Labour by claiming he was working for them, rather than consulting for them, without a UK work...

Opportunities for the West to hurt the Russian economy are limited, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Europe cannot stop buying Russian gas without inflicting pain on itself, and if the US tries to lower oil prices, the dollar will suffer. If the West tries to damage Russia’s influence in the world energy market, efforts will likely backfire, the Russian President said during his twelfth annual televised question and answer session. To really influence the world oil market a country would need to increase production and cut prices, which currently only Saudi Arabia could afford, Putin said. The president added he...

This is the html version of the file http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/memoranda/memo55.pdf.G o o g l e automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:lUjtgbDqYXoC:www.tau.ac.il/jcss/memoranda/memo55.pdf+%22ISRAEL-PAKISTAN%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content. These search terms have been highlighted:  israel  pakistan  Page 1 P. R. Kumaraswamy Beyond the Veil: Israel-Pakistan Relations Page 2 Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (JCSS) The purpose of the Jaffee Center is, first, to conduct basic research that meets the highest academic standards on matters related to...

Russia now spends more on its military, relative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), than both the United States and Europe respectively. According to figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Moscow spent 4.1 percent of its GDP on defence in 2013, an increase of 0.6 percent over the past 10 years. By contrast, the United States spent 3.8 percent of GDP on defence and Britain spent just 2.3 percent, with further defence cuts expected. The only neighbouring country that spends more is Azerbaijan, with 4.7 percent. Defence spending in Ukraine has also rocketed by 16 percent in the...

A London hairdresser, who used a photo of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to attract customers having a “bad hair day”, was visited by embassy officials who demanded its removal because it was "disrespectful" to their supreme leader. Mo Nabbach, the manager of M&M Hair Academy in South Ealing, had to call in police after the two North Korean agents took photographs of his shop window and made notes. Beneath a picture of Kim Jong-un, the advert said: “Bad hair day? 15 percent off all gent cuts through the month of April. Tuesday–Thursday.” The diplomats, who are based at the...

An Israeli hacker team published on Tuesday images and personal details of members of the Anonymous hacker collective who participated in the OpIsrael attack against Israeli sites earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Israeli Elite Force gained access to the computers of 16 Anonymous members and was able to capture screenshots and photos of the anti-Israel hackers with their own webcams. The Israeli team published the information in a Dropbox document via their Facebook page, saying, “Anonymous, next time do not mess with us.” The file includes the names of the attackers, their countries of origin, and usernames and...

An EU Bill of Rights that overrides British laws is becoming a “reality”, the vice-president of the European Commission has said. Viviane Reding said that people in European member states will in future be able to “rely” on the EU charter of “fundamental rights”. The European Commission wants to enforce the charter, which enshrines 54 basic rights in EU law, in all member states. Senior British judges have warned that the EU charter has already taken hold in Britain by stealth and Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, has said he is prepared to go to court in an attempt to...

A pregnant woman with appendicitis died after a trainee surgeon mistakenly removed one of her healthy ovaries, a tribunal heard. Maria De Jesus, 32, underwent the operation at Queen's Hospital, Romford, Essex, after she was admitted with abdominal pains in October 2011. She died 19 days later after suffering a miscarriage. Dr Yahya Al-Abed admitted he made a number of errors during the procedure, including removing her right ovary instead of her appendix. Senior surgical consultant, Dr Babatunde Coker, is accused of failing in his role by not attending theatre to carry out the surgery himself or supervising the registrar....

London (AFP) - Birmingham launched a probe Monday into an alleged hardline Muslim plot to take control of schools. The city council said it had appointed a chief adviser to examine at least 200 complaints as the investigation widened to 25 schools from an initial four. Concerns about how some of the 430 schools in the city were being run first emerged last year in a leaked anonymous letter which outlined how to implement what it called Operation Trojan Horse. The letter, which credited the alleged plot with forcing a change of leadership at four schools, gave instructions on ousting...

PERTH, Apr 14: The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 will be deployed later today, as the search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 continues underwater. Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief coordinator Air Chief Marshal (Retired) Angus Houston said the decision to deploy Bluefin was made as no further confirmed signals had been picked up by the towed pinger locator since Tuesday last week, reported Bernama. :snip: ... the AUV, which had the ability to go down to 4,500m underwater, would be deployed on its first mission covering approximately an area of 40sq km in the vicinity of...

The Conservatives could be pushed into third place at the European elections after the party’s poll ratings plunged in the wake of the Maria Miller expenses scandal. A poll has put the Tories on 23 percent, behind Labour (31 percent) and UKIP (28 percent) just days after the Culture Secretary was forced to resign in an expenses row. The Liberal Democrats were on a dismal 9 percent, according to analysis of recent polling by Professor Curtice of Strathclyde University. Levels of support for UKIP are now at a record high as they were the only party to gain popularity in...

Here is a good account — by the victim — of yet another Islamic supremacist attempt to shut down the freedom of speech, with the aid of the British government. This one failed. There will be many, many other such attempts, and probably more from the mendacious, grievance-mongering taqiyya artist Fiyaz Mughal.“Showdown in Birmingham,” by Tim Burton at LibertyGB, April 12: I took a last mouthful of cappuccino and glanced out of the window of the restaurant over the road from the Birmingham Magistrates’ Court. A small group of demonstrators had already arrived on the court steps and were busy...

Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world, British Prime Minister David Cameron stated during his annual Easter reception at 10 Downing Street Wednesday. He urged Britain to play a leading role in standing against religious persecution and highlighted three focal points: The first is to expand the role of faith and faith organisations in our country. This has been a consistent theme of this government; I’m sure there’s more we could do to help make it easier for faith organisations…. Second thing is I hope we can do more to raise the profile of the persecution of...

Madoc In AmericaNative American Histories in the USA Is truth stranger than fiction? Of course it is; it always has been One subject that has been debated for the last four hundred years was whether or not a Khumric-Welsh Prince called Madoc discovered America. Queen Elizabeth I was persuaded by her advisors that this was so and the Khumric-Welsh discovery was put forward as somehow giving England a prior claim in the political wrangles over first rights in the New World of the Americas. No one ever thought to investigate the British records. Caradoc of Llancarfan wrote about it circa...

Did the Welsh discover America? 26/8/2002 A team of historians and researchers announced today that Radio Carbon dating evidence, and the discovery of ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions in the American Midwest, provide the strongest indications yet" that British explorers, under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in the country during the 6th Century and set up colonies there. Research team members have known the location of burial sites of Madoc's close relatives in Wales for some time, it emerged today; but they have decided to break their self-imposed silence in order that their research be fully known and...

One of Britain’s top public schools is the subject of scandal Sunday, after it was revealed that a teacher threatened to send a Jewish student to “one of your gas chambers” for skipping the lunch line. The student, a seventeen year-old girl at the highly prestigious North London Collegiate School, later received an apology from the teacher in private over the remark, according to the Daily Mail. The school has refused to identify the offending teacher, however, or what—if any—disciplinary action had been taken over the remark. The girl’s parents urged the headmistress on Saturday night to make a public...

Actress Kirsten Dunst came under attack from nasty feminists on the Internet for remarks she made in the U.K. edition of Harpers Bazaar magazine. "I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued," Dunst said. "We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mum created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armour. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work."

No devotee of Yes Minister, yesteryear’s BBC’s classic, can forget St. Edward’s Hospital – that spanking new cutting edge facility that had no patients or medical personnel. Nonetheless, St. Edward’s hustled and bustled, a veritable hive of activity and creative energy. For 15-months since its much-ballyhooed inauguration, an administrative staff of 500 bureaucrats filled the hospital’s offices, pushed papers and generated red tape. Sounds exaggerated? A bit over-the-top for real life? Not really. John Kerry’s peace project, for example, replicates the parody’s blueprints with mind-blowing precision. It is for diplomacy what St. Edward’s was for health care – an incredible...

Put this in the column of seriously strange news. A dentist in Canada who bought an old tooth that came Beatles icon John Lennon's mouth now thinks he can turn DNA from that tooth into a baby via cloning. Michael Zuk, who paid $33,000 for the tooth at an auction three years ago, told Britian's Channel 4 during an episode of "Dead Famous DNA" that he now is going to try to make a John Lennon-like baby that he can raise as his own. "If there is enough DNA to sequence it, it could be basically genetic real estate," Mr....

Returning from Mass yesterday morning I turned on Radio 4 in the car. It was Women’s Hour and there was the presenter, Dame Jenni Murray, calmly discussing with other women the question of whether women should be allowed to serve in the front line in the forces or not. The question is topical because General Sir Peter Wall, head of the British army, stated earlier this week that the army should look “more normal to society”. He explained: “This isn’t just about getting more females into the 30% of roles that are combat trades but getting more of them into...

David Cameron has claimed divine inspiration was at work when it came to drafting a key concept for Conservative Party policy. Speaking last night at his Easter reception in Downing Street, the Prime Minister reportedly said he was simply doing God’s work when he launched the “Big Society” initiative of volunteering and civic responsibility. “Jesus invented the Big Society 2,000 years ago,” Mr. Cameron said. “I just want to see more of it.” …

The U.S. Senate is keeping up the pressure on the European Union (EU) to not hamper U.S. production and exports through the appropriation of common food names. This time the focus is on commonly used meat names, such as “bologna” and “black forest ham”. In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the senators urged them to defend common names, especially in negotiations with the EU on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).Last month the Senate sent a similar letter focused on common cheese names that are under attack, including “parmesan”, “feta” and...

People should eat fewer baked beans to reduce flatulence which can contribute to global warming, a minister suggested today. Fears were raised about the impact of ‘smelly emissions’ caused by Brits eating more beans than any other country in the world. Climate change minister Lady Verma said it was an ‘important’ issue and urged the public to ‘moderate our behaviour’. Concerns have previously been raised about the effect of methane emissions from cows on global warming. But in the House of Lords today a Labour peer raised questions about the impact of human diet on emmisions. Viscount Simon, 73, a...

LONDON - Today's British people are "the least active generation in history" and that lack of exercise is leading to around 37,000 premature deaths a year, according to a parliamentary report published on Tuesday. Published by the All Party Commission on Physical Activity, the report calls for radical changes to "turn back the toxic tide of inactivity," including altering the way schools are run to ensure that children take more exercise, and changes in town and transport planning in order to make it easier for people to make more journeys on foot or by bicycle.

PM facing embarrassment over links between adviser and Islamist group. Adviser Tariq Ramadan is grandson of Muslim Brotherhood's founder . ... Tariq Ramadan is one of 14 members of the Foreign Office’s Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, chaired by Tory peer Baroness Warsi. He is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, and was a member of a taskforce set up by Tony Blair after 7/7. But Prof Ramadan, 51, is grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder Hassan al-Banna and his father Said Ramadan was a leading light. ... He was kept out of France in...

The professor who refused to sign last week’s high-profile UN climate report because it was too ‘alarmist’, has told The Mail on Sunday he has become the victim of a smear campaign. Richard Tol claims he is fighting a sustained attack on his reputation by a key figure from a leading institution that researches the impact of global warming. Prof Tol said: ‘This has all the characteristics of a smear campaign. It’s all about taking away my credibility as an expert.’ Prof Tol, from Sussex University, is a highly respected climate economist and one of two ‘co-ordinating lead authors’ of...

Great Britain’s Iron Lady passed away a year ago today, on April 8, 2013. Her death, at the age of 87, left a huge void on the world stage, one that may never be filled. Margaret Thatcher was a political titan who transformed her home nation from the “sick man of Europe” into a resurgent economic power. Implementing conservative policies that emphasized individual liberty and economic freedom, Thatcher lifted a nation ravaged by Socialism off its deathbed, restoring Britain’s prosperity and self-confidence.She was also a fearless leader internationally, standing shoulder to shoulder with Ronald Reagan in opposition to the Soviet...

(Reuters) - Britain's economy could grow by 1.3 billion pounds if it left the European Union due to less regulation and more trade with emerging economies, a British diplomat who dreamt up a prize-winning blueprint for the country's EU exit said on Tuesday. Britain's free market Institute of Economic Affairs on Tuesday awarded a 100,000-euro prize to Iain Mansfield, a British diplomat based in the Philippines, who it decided had come up with the best blueprint for a 'Brexit,' a British departure from the EU. Amid widespread public disenchantment in Britain about the EU's perceived over-bearing role in everyday life...

A number of prominent counter-jihadis, such as Geert Wilders, have the distinction of being banned from entry into the United Kingdom — and, now, Her Majesty’s Government, in its wisdom, appears to have banned on some public computers two websites connected to me. It’s not quite the same, admittedly, and I am working to get this ban removed, but I also wear it as a perverse badge of honor given that government’s shameful record vis-à-vis Islamism. Say you’re in the British Library, the national depository library and a government institution, roughly equivalent to the Library of Congress in the...

Mark Stephenson confessed at a February 28, 2014, United Kingdom trial “threatening behavior” while watching a December 7, 2013, Birmingham soccer game.  Stephenson’s behavior involved Koran desecration, merely the latest case demonstrating deferential British censorship with respect to Islam’s holy book.According to one news account, a woman gave pages of a Koran taken from her handbag to Stephenson and about 20 other soccer fans during the game.  Stephenson ripped the pages and pretended to burn them with a lighter while saying to a stadium worker that he had the “Muslim bible, we hate Muslims.”  Another worker overheard fans shouting “Koran,...

A 12-year-old girl has been killed on her first date after she was dragged by her father's SUV as she tried to get out of the vehicle to pose for a photo with the boy.

(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron's handling of an expenses scandal engulfing one of his ministers has put him under pressure before European elections, threatening his Conservative party's already clouded electoral outlook. Cameron, whose party risks being beaten into third place in next month's European Parliament elections behind the anti-EU UK Independence party (UKIP), has stood by Maria Miller, Britain's minister for culture, since a parliamentary report ordered her to pay back wrongly claimed expenses last week. But the media and public backlash against Miller shows no sign of abating despite Cameron's efforts to end it. Many of his own...

The Tory revolt over Europe took a dramatic turn last night after senior Conservative David Davis called on the Government to open talks with Brussels on quitting the EU. Former Tory chairman Mr. Davis tore into David Cameron, accusing him of making a mess of his pledge to win back powers from the EU. “Scaremongers” who said Britain would collapse if it decided to go it alone were talking nonsense, said Mr Davis. Quitting the EU would be like a “revolution” and would boost UK jobs, wages, world power, arts and prestige, he added. Significantly, his intervention comes days after...

In British law, race and religion are increasingly becoming deliberately confused for the purpose of accusing critics of Islam of racism. A soccer fan was recently arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after allegedly ripping up pages of the Qur’an and throwing them at a match. While on bail, he was also banned from attending any football games, visiting St Andrew’s – the stadium of the incident -, and going to any city where his team Middlesbrough was playing.Insults against Islam are taken very seriously in Britain, and the world of soccer is particularly sensitive to them. After the...

GCSE and A-level examinations could be brought forward for hundreds of thousands of pupils to avoid a clash with Ramadan under controversial proposals. Teachers and lecturers in England and Wales are pushing for the summer exam timetable to be altered to help Muslim students who will be fasting when they sit papers. School exam boards and universities are considering the radical shake-up from 2016, when the religious period of Ramadan clashes with the exam season.

Tools unlock secrets of early man By Mark Kinver Science reporter, BBC News website Researchers are confident the tools are 700,000 years old New research shows that early humans were living in Britain around 700,000 years ago, much earlier than scientists had previously thought. Using new dating techniques, scientists found that flint tools unearthed in Pakefield, Suffolk, were 200,000 years older than the previous oldest find. Humans were known to have lived in southern Europe 780,000 years ago but it was unclear when they moved north. The findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature. A team of scientists...